Understanding Taqlid by Mufti Muhammad Sajaad

understanding taqlīd
interchanging as he wishes. Some add some preconditions to this
swapping of positions.
2. Taqlīd of any scholar is absolutely forbidden, rather each person
must take his din directly from the Holy Qur’an and Sunna. The
scholars at most can inform a person of the evidences.
3. An individual needs only do taqlīd of any true scholar
even outside the four schools. What matters is to follow the
evidence.
Although this section is designed to shed light on the reality of
all these claims, that each one is unacceptable (thus the quotations
cited are not just on the issue of Taqlīd Shakhṣī), nevertheless, our
main aim in this section is to prove that Taqlīd Shakhṣī of one of
the four schools was upheld as obligatory for the non-scholar by
the majority of the Ahl al-Sunna scholars. The scholars we shall
cite are such authorities in the sacred knowledge of the Din that it
is not unreasonable to assume that this was also the view of their
many eminent teachers, students and learned Muslims in general.
what the scholars say
VVImām Shams al-Din Dhahabī (673-748 AH) writes in Siyar
A‘lam al-Nubalā under Ibn Hazm Zāhirī’s comment:
“I follow the truth and perform ijtihād, and I do not adhere to
any madh-hab”, “I say: yes. Whoever has reached the level of
ijtihād and a number of imāms have attested to this regarding
him, it is not allowed for him to do taqlīd, just as it is not seeming
at all for the beginner layman jurist who has committed the
Qur’ān to memory or a great deal of it to perform ijtihād. How
is he going to perform ijtihād? What will he say? On what will
he base his opinions? How can he fly when his wings have not
yet grown?” (Vol.18, Pg.191)
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